A common cause of discomfort to skiers who use a chair lift or sports fans who sit for relatively long periods in an ice rink or other stadium, is the coldness and hardness of the seats.
Carrying a cushion or even a drying cloth is generally not practical due to the bulk thereof and/or lack of a pocket in which to stow the cushion or cloth when not in use. U.S. Pat. No. 4,689,829 discloses a seat covering device which is simply a cloth flap which can be supported, at one end, around the waist of a skier and let down over the skier's rear when sitting on a ski chair lift. After use the flap is rolled up and secured by a pair of loops adjacent the waist strap. Such a device is easy to let down and use but is difficult or awkward to return to the rolled up position.
Canadian Patent No. 1,235,551 also teaches a skier's seat covering device comprising a plurality of pad members having a flexible connection therebetween with a pair of straps at one end thereof to tie the device around the user's waist and a pair of straps at the other end thereof to tie around the legs when in the extended position and around the waist when in the retracted position. Here again, gravity will allow easy extension but retraction is tedious, awkward and time consuming.
There is, therefore, a need for a seat covering device which can be worn around a user's waist, easily extended and which retracts quickly and easily to the stored position, preferably automatically, and which does not detract from the user's, and particularly a skier's, appearance.